October 2015

The purpose of our Intergroup is to more effectively reach the sex addict in the Orange County area who still suffers. We meet the second Wednesday of each month from 7pm-8:30 p.m. at Lighthouse Church, 1885 Anaheim Ave., Costa Mesa CA 92627, in the Sanctuary. All SAA members are welcome to participate. If you can’t make it, meeting minutes are published on our website. We want your ideas!

Intergroup

As we continue on our own path to sobriety and serenity we often look for ways to serve. As we approach the holidays finding ways to be of service may be very easy with family get togethers and selecting gifts or just helping someone in need. Being an intergroup representative for your meeting also can be a huge service to your meeting and helps ensure ideas and thoughts are being brought from each of the groups so we can continue to help the sex addict who still suffers. Consider serving others and be an intergroup representative for your group. Intergroup meets the second Wednesday of each month from 7pm-8:30 p.m. at Lighthouse Church, 1885 Anaheim Ave., Costa Mesa CA 92627, in the Sanctuary.

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My Share

Each month, we publish a personal but anonymous story of recovery. It can be either an autobiography or about a subject important to your recovery. Stories should be written in the first person (“I”) and speak from your experience, strength, and hope. Please submit your story to ocisaa.newsletter@gmail.com. We may edit submissions for reasons of space, clarity, and appropriate language. Here is this month’s story:

The Man in the Arena

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt

A strong and powerful thought…we are in the arena, we are marred by dust and blood and sweat. We dare greatly to better ourselves and our lives. We stand up to our addiction as we step into the arena. We learn from our fails and we relish in our triumphs and strive to keep moving forward and away from shame.

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Intergroup Project Updates

Survey

Please let us know of ways to improve our efforts to reach the sex addict who still suffers.

– 152 people took the survey with 146 males and 5 females responding
– 16 people found SAA through acting out, while 94 found us while looking
for help which is up 17% from last year.
– 49 came to us from therapists up 5% from 2014.
– Referrals were down 6% with 33 being referred.

What kept most coming back was a connection to a share, hearing someone else’s story with 80 responses. We know the power of hearing others going through the same thing we are. Hearing the similar despair and longing for a better path. 27 came back because they were greeted…very important because we all understand that it is a huge step to just walk in to a meeting of strangers and utter those three words for the first time.

The most most popular meeting formats (in order of most popular to least popular) were shares-106, speaker-52, book study-48, step study-47, mixed-23, meditation-17 and other-14.

Thank you to everyone who participated and provided data for the survey and a big thank you to everyone involved in getting this survey out to everyone and compiling the results. If you have questions please let us know.

Retaining Newcomers

As always, we want to reach out and retain newcomers since most of us know that abstinence and sobriety is better maintained out of isolation and in the fellowship of others. Please consider ways to retain newcomers and ensure they feel welcome as I know we all do.

Website Traffic

We continue to receive visitors to our website, http://www.ocisaa.org, with 1,621 views and 949 people visited and actively looking through the site and primarily using the meeting location tab. Our website is a valuable for those in recovery as well as those seeking recovery.

Internet Keyword Search Optimization

Our internet keyword search continues to be successful. In September 2016, we had 530 clicks and 16,202 impressions, which is a chance for people to our site. As a result of this endeavor we are reaching a new audience which is great. This is continuing to be a worthwhile venture and it brings the sex addict who still suffers to our page, hopefully meetings and most importantly to recovery.

To date (since June 2015) we have had 276,861 impressions and 6,390 clicks. The impressions are what pops up when someone types in keywords that we have added to Google Adwords. The clicks are visits to our page. This endeavor has had a large impact on reaching the sex addict who still suffers.

We will also be adding word search terms for women who are suffering from this addiction. We have received several contacts from women through the adword project.

Craigslist

The responses continue to ads we placed for SAA on the Orange County Craigslist website. Sex addicts going there to act out are being presented with an opportunity for recovery, and for some of them, it’s working!

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Announcements & News Notes

The OC Intergroup meeting day has changed. OC Intergroup now meets the 2nd Wednesday of each month at 7pm at the same location, Lighthouse Church Costa Mesa in the Sanctuary.

Costa Mesa Noon Meetings

We have found a new location for the Costa Mesa Noon Meetings…
Orange Coast Unitarian Universalist Church located at:
2845 Mesa Verde Dr. East – Suite 4
Costa Mesa, CA 92626

They are also looking for speakers for Monday meetings to speak for 15 minutes on how they found recovery. Requires 6 months or more of sobriety to speak. Contact Lee at (714)318-8932 if interested.

A Message for Sponsors

We suggest you consider stressing to your sponsees the importance of service work such as volunteering for positions at their meetings. Early in recovery, service work gives recovering sex addicts something to feel good about when they need it most. Later on, it becomes Step 12 work, a very healthy activity and again a builder of self-esteem. Some sponsors we know feel so strongly about it that they advise their sponsees either to fill a service position or find another sponsor!

Intergroup Vacancies

Our Intergroup elections are coming up in November. All positions except the Chair positions are up for election. These are great opportunities to be of service, and they generally require little or no special expertise.

► The Vice Chair works with the Chair to coordinate the Intergroup’s overall activities such as preparing the monthly agenda and helping with surveys. It’s estimated that Vice Chair duties take about 2-4 hours per month, plus the monthly Intergroup meeting.

► The Vice Treasurer works with the Treasurer to manage Intergroup funds. The duties generally occupy minimal time – just an hour most months. Attendance at the monthly Intergroup meeting is encouraged. This position requires one year of abstinence.

► Digi Com Chair is responsible for maintaining the website and generally requires 2-4 hours each month. Attendance at the monthly Intergroup meeting is encouraged.

► We are looking for people with website experience of any kind, including those who are willing to learn.

Thanks for Your Donations!

We are grateful for the support we receive from the Orange County area SAA meetings. As you can see from our activities listed in this newsletter, we are putting your donations to good use. We encourage you to attend our monthly meetings and voice your ideas.

A Note to Event Promoters and Organizers: For those requesting announcements to run in our newsletter, please use the following format – and order – as much as possible:

Who: Are you a committee (of the Intergroup, for example), or an individual SAA meeting group, or another type of organization or individual?What: Is this a workshop, breakfast, retreat, or another type of event?Title: What is the name of your event?When: Give the date and starting and ending times of your event.Cost: What – if anything – is the suggested contribution, or is it a set fee, or is no one turned away for lack of funds?Description: In a sentence, or several sentences, say what is unique or especially appealing about your event.Where: Event address, along with any cross-street info or parking tips you think are important.More Info: Whom to call for more information? List a telephone number, email address, and/or website.Please give us as much lead time as possible, and note that submissions are subject to editing for clarity and space.

Wednesday, 12:00 – 1:00 pm
Men only/Closed
Pines Park, 34941 Camino Capistrano, CA 92624
Directions: From the 5 Freeway head south on Camino De Estrella towards Coast Highway, turn right on to Camino Capistrano. Parking will be on the street on Camino Capistrano…….the meeting is held at the upper Park at the south end.
For more information call (949) 547-4498.